The Student Folly
Student power, the campaign slogan of more than one political party and governmental group on this campus, may introduce an age of darkness to free institutions in Kansas.
In the name of this catchy slogan, student leaders and would-be student leaders at KU and other state schools have marched to the capitol building in Topeka in hopes of circumventing University authorities by pleading their many causes before the state legislature.
WITH THE HOPE OF BRINGING cigarettes back to campus and establishing potentially evil power bases throughout the state, these student comptrollers of student power are attempting to lay the principles of an autonomous—and free—university at the muddy feet of a biased group of censors, the Kansas law-makers.
Little do they know their folly.
A bill to overrule the Regents by ordering the sale of cigarettes on this campus would, for example, set a most horrible precedent. It would allow the House—and the Senate—to freely overrule any further decision or action of University officials and students—far beyond the realm of cigarette sales.
BUT OUR OWN STUDENT legislators do not seem to realize this. They cannot see the implication of direct legislative control over this campus. All they want to do is buy cigarettes at the Union and win votes from their uninformed constituents.
Another bit of perversion of student power is the dream of establishing a state-wide lobby of students. The supporters of this concept wish to bring their gripes to Topeka on the tip of a big stick—potential student voters. They are even more ignorant of democratic institutions than the fag enthusiasts.
For behind such a grand scheme lies the most base political denominator, the special interest lobby. Such a lobby of students could quickly find themselves in a give-and-take situation with the powerful legislature that could—if things went awry—prostitute such university principles as academic freedom, speech freedom and press freedom in return for a legislative kick in the pants.
But let the rest of us—who know the value of choosing the speakers we wish to hear, of allowing our professors the right to teach as they see fit, of speaking out ourselves without fear of majority muzzle—rise to the occasion.
Our student power enthusiasts may not know their own folly. Let us show them before it is too late. -Dan Austin
The Other Latin-American Summit
The people say...
Dear Editor:
On the front page of the April 11 UDK was an article about yet another war protest by three organizations, two of which had the word "peace" in their names. This set me to thinking that everyone who talks about Vietnam, whether they support the war effort or oppose it, says that their goal is peace. I am reminded of Patrick Henry's words, "Gentlemen cry, 'Peace! Peace;' but there is no peace."
If everyone wants the same thing, why do we have so much controversy over Vietnam? I believe that much of the problem is due to a false concept of peace held by most people in "peace organizations."
PEACE IS NOT merely the absence of war. Peace is creative harmony, productive good will. Peace is present only when there is a common commitment to all the things that contribute to the highest good for all men. We are not literally at war with Russia, but neither do we have peace with Russia. To describe this situation we have coined the term "cold war."
An analogous situation may be seen in too many homes. A husband and wife may not fight, but unless there is a common commitment to mutual enrichment, neither is there peace in the home. The harmony of peace comes only when all concerned
share the same goals and actively work toward the highest possible good for all concerned.
It is the same between nations. For twenty years we have been living under the threat of atomic war. There has been no real peace. If there were peace, we would not have a Central Intelligence Agency doing silly things like uselessly pumping funds into the National Student Organization. But so long as we assume that peace is merely the absence of war, we shall not have the commitment necessary to lay the foundations of real peace, but will continue to expend our resources in vain attempts to reach fuzzy goals, mistakenly defined as "peace."
Jesus said, "Happy are those who make peace, for they shall be known as sons of God (J. B. Phillips translation)" Jesus is not talking about peace-lovers; he is talking about peace-makers. It is not enough to simply love peace, to desire peace, to talk peace, to enjoy peace, or even to sound the alarm about the dangers of war. The happiness is promised only to those who are actively involved in laying the foundations for a better, more harmonious world.
PEACE-LOVERS MAY buy the absence of war at too high a price. The hot and cold wars of today's world would end immediately if the United States would
give in to the demands of the communists. We could take the stand that nothing is more important than the elimination of war. But something is more important: the basis of true peace is more important than anything else. If stopping the war means slavery for mankind, or even a portion thereof, by communism, then stopping war comes at too high a price.
The extent and manner of our current world involvements may be questionable, but as a nation of people whose forefathers bought our freedom by resisting tyranny, we must be involved. However, many people have been so drugged by their peace-loving that they have overlooked peace-making. The price that we must pay for this oversight made years ago, is a war in Vietnam today. In the forties and fifties the U.S. did too little too late in the wrong way to lay the foundation for a peaceful world. Thus, in the sixties, we pay for this former neglect by fighting a war to buy time in order that we may have another chance to do the job right.
Sincerelv.
Kent Dannen
College Conservative Council
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International Festival: Invitations available now. 226 Strong.
Foreign Students: See April International Newsletter for in'o concerning Toppea invitation of Gov. & Mrs. Docking. Sign up 226 St.
TODAY
CATHEDRAU
Model U.N.: Kansas Union Ballroom.
Popular Film, 7 & 9:30 p.m. "The Guns of Navarone." Dyche Awd Venezuelan Student Center, Movie, 7:30 p.m. Forum Room, Union Features: "Wildlife" and "The Orinoco Delta." Everyone welcome.
Model U.N., All Day. Union Ballroom.
State Speech Festival, All Day.
Union
Baseball, 1 p.m. Oklahoma State.
Quigley Field.
Popular Film, 7 & 3:30 p.m. "The
Guns of Navarone." Dvehs Aud.
International Club, 8 p.m. Kansas
Union
SUNDAY
Chamber Choir, 3:30 p.m. Swarthout
Rochelle Hall.
Popular Film, 7 & 9:30 p.m. "The Guns of Navarone." Dyche Aud.
2
Daily Kansan editorial page Friday, April 14, 1967
UDK Movie Review: The Shop on Main Street
'Shop' is human, gem in the rough
Jan Kadar's "The Shop on Main Street" is a tiny gem of movie-making. In some ways it is not as polished as it might be. But the lively acting of Josef Kroner and the subtle direction of Kadar and Elmar Klos keep "The Shop" always warmly human.
That is not say that "The Shop on Main Street" is a maudlin bit of Disney-esque fluff. Kadar's film is didactic in that it is a telling attack on Nazi brutality. But the movie carefully avoids the heavy-handed heart-wringing that might be extruded from such a theme.
"The Shop on Main Street" is actually not about Jews, but about Aryans who should stand to profit from the anti-Semitic laws. No members of society truly profit, however, at the expense of their fellows.
Josef Kroner portrays an "Aryan Controller," legally authorized to mange a Jewish shop. The man is a carpenter by trade and inclination with a human mixture of brotherhood and cowardice. It is easy for the carpenter to love, and it is easy for him to hate. But to risk himself for either emotion is the test of his manhood.
Is the carpenter a man, or has he failed? The audience draws its own conclusion and perhaps does not despair as deeply for the carpenter as he does for himself. Under the sweep of European history, a little man seems to triumph if he has just managed to stand erect for an instant.
The tragedy that "The Shop on Main Street" so well presents is the state of mind of Europe in 1942—the common people so pitifully unprepared to face the realities of a Nazi danger. Main Street simply was not ready to cope with legal gangsterism.
Like so many East European films, this movie was not made casually, but on a casual budget. American audiences, used to slick professional movies, even from such "experimental" directors as Fellini and Antonioni, may be disappointed. Indeed the film has its slow spots. But this is no amateurish attempt. "The Shop on Main Street" is a small success of mature film-making.
NEW BOOKS
FIVE WOMEN, by Robert Musil (Delta, $1.75)—A collection of short stories by a writer who is getting a good deal of attention these days. Musil's stories in this book include "The Lady from Portugal," about a warrior lord and a feudal mountain castle;
"Grigia," an engineer and a pleasant woman; "Tonka," a student in love with a working girl; "The Perfecting of Love," a woman and her interest in a stranger, and "The Temptation of Quiet Veronica," a woman and two men and spiritual and sexual desire.